By Woolley                                            H.B. No. 2586
         76R5308 CMR-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the duties of an attorney ad litem in a suit affecting
 1-3     the parent-child relationship.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 107.014(b), Family Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  An attorney ad litem appointed to represent a child
 1-8     shall within a reasonable time after the appointment:
 1-9                 (1)  interview the child if the child is four years of
1-10     age or older;
1-11                 (2)  interview the child's caregivers;
1-12                 (3)  interview individuals with significant knowledge
1-13     of the child's history and condition; and
1-14                 (4) [(3)]  interview all parties to the suit.
1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-16     applies only to an attorney ad litem appointed on or after that
1-17     date.  An attorney ad litem appointed before the effective date of
1-18     this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the attorney
1-19     ad litem was appointed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-20     for that purpose.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.